Saturday, March 19, 2011

I work with a number of "Boomer" architects, planners and designers. And every once in a while they remind me that back in the 1970s during the Carter Administration they did a lot of innovative thinking on the green front. While those of us swept up in this recent wave of greenitis think that we invented the mindset, it's actually been around for a long time -actually a VERY long time - even before my boomer colleagues.

Reading yesterday's OP-ED in the NYTimes by Susan Freinkel, she give me some context on plastic I hadn't thought of before. While I have recently become fairly anti-plastic - particularly with the concern over toys manufactured in China (I have a newborn) - Freinkel suggests that plastic, at one time, was the answer to our environmental problems:

The earliest plastics were invented as the substitutes for dwindling supplies of natural materials like ivory or tortoiseshell. When the American John Wesley Hyatt patented celluloid in 1869, his company pledged that the new man made material, used in jewelry, cobs, buttons and other items would bring "respite" to the elephant and tortoise because it would 'no longer be necessary to ransack the earth in pursuit of substances which are constantly growing scarcer.

Freinkel goes on to comment that the problem is not in fact plastic itself, but how we make and use it today. We make it into disposable products and then throw these products away within 24 hours of use. I couldn't agree more. It is true that much of the focus of environmental efforts is on recycling rather than reduction. We feel we can justify buying lots of "stuff" and packaging if we just dispose of it correctly. Truth be told, I'm absolutely one of those people. I get all self-righteous that I'm putting things in the right bin before I take ownership of the fact that I shouldn't have bought all that stuff in the first place.

So I guess I need to revise previous statements I've made about plastic. I'm not against ALL plastic, just the stuff made to be tossed that leeches away in our garbage dumps like one-time-use bottles and bags. I LIKE plastic in solar panels, lighter cars and planes (reducing fossil fuel use) and medical devices that keep people alive. I also like the plastic that helps my clothes last longer, prevents my 5 year old from breaking glass (thank goodness for reusable cups and plates) and makes lots of things affordable.

14 comments:

Anonymous
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A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs. Monomers of plastic are either natural or synthetic organic compounds.

The word plastic is derived from the Greek πλαστικός (plastikos) meaning capable of being shaped or molded, from πλαστός (plastos) meaning molded.[1][2] It refers to their malleability, or plasticity during manufacture, that allows them to be cast, pressed, or extruded into a variety of shapes—such as films, fibers, plates, tubes, bottles, boxes, and much more.

The common word plastic should not be confused with the technical adjective plastic, which is applied to any material which undergoes a permanent change of shape (plastic deformation) when strained beyond a certain point. Aluminum which is stamped or forged, for instance, exhibits plasticity in this sense, but is not plastic in the common sense; in contrast, in their finished forms, some plastics will break before deforming and therefore are not plastic in the technical sense.

A keystone of any sustainability initiativeis the sustainability report. Not only doesa report help your company promote thegood work that you are doing, but it alsoassists with sustainability planning.Sustainability reports are typicallypublished once a year or once every twoyears. At the end of the reporting period,factual data from NAED’s SustainabilityPerformance Management Tools1 can beincorporated into the report.This sample plan can help get youstarted. Start with the major headings andsubheadings, adding interim achievementsand progress toward sustainability goals.2By drafting a mock up of the sustainabilityreport early in the process, staff will havea tool to capture lessons learned as well asmanage the data.The finished report will showcase theachievement of sustainability goals andcurrent year-end statistics. Tailored toyour target audiences, your sustainabilityreport will be a powerful statement ofyour goals and commitments.

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten.[1] Carbon and other elements act as a hardening agent, preventing dislocations in the iron atom crystal lattice from sliding past one another. Varying the amount of alloying elements and the form of their presence in the steel (solute elements, precipitated phase) controls qualities such as the hardness, ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting steel. Steel with increased carbon content can be made harder and stronger than iron, but such steel is also less ductile than iron.

Alloys with a higher than 2.1% carbon content are known as cast iron because of their lower melting point and good castability.[1] Steel is also distinguishable from wrought iron, which can contain a small amount of carbon, but it is included in the form of slag inclusions. Two distinguishing factors are steel's increased rust resistance and better weldability.

Though steel had been produced by various inefficient methods long before the Renaissance, its use became more common after more-efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century. With the invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, steel became an inexpensive mass-produced material. Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), lowered the cost of production while increasing the quality of the metal. Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world, with more than 1.3 billion tons produced annually. It is a major component in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons. Modern steel is generally identified by various grades defined by assorted standards organizations.

Horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae) are a family of bats. In addition to the single living genus, Rhinolophus, there is one extinct genus, Palaeonycteris. The closely related Hipposideridae are sometimes included within the horseshoe bats as a subfamily, Hipposiderinae. Both families are classified in the suborder Yinpterochiroptera or Pteropodiformes and were previously included in Microchiroptera.

All horseshoe bats have leaf-like, horseshoe-shaped protuberances on their noses. In the related Hipposideridae, these noseleafs are leaf- or spear-like. They emit echolocation calls through these structures, which may serve to focus the sound. Their hind limbs are not well developed, so that they cannot walk on all fours; conversely, their wings are broad, making their flight particularly agile. Most rhinolophids are dull brown or reddish brown in color. They vary in size from 2.5 cm to 14 cm in head-body length, and 4 to 120 grams in weight (Macdonald, 1984). Their dental formula is .

The females have a pair of mammary glands and two "false nipples" above and to the side of the genital opening, which newborn bats cling to for a few days after birth.

The Duchy of Burgundy (1363-1477), was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.

Even in that diminished size, the duchy played a pivotal role in Europe's politics (of marriages and wars over territories between princes under Right of Conquest and inheritance practices) long after it lost its role as an independent political identity in the Battle of Nancy in 1477. It was demoted to a ducal rank from the inheritance and settlements in 1363 by a cadet branch inheritance via salic law divided between two heirs as a territorial remnant or rump of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy — other portions passing to another cadet branch as well as the Free County of Burgundy. The duchy roughly conforms to the borders and territories of today's modern Bourgogne, but its dukes came to own considerable possessions in the Low Countries, the so-called Burgundian Netherlands, which were caught up in the sixteenth-seventeenth century's Eighty Years' War and later and became free territories in the Dutch Revolt of the during the Thirty Years' War.

During 1363 – 1477, the Duchy was ruled by a succession of dukes, whose extinction with the death of Charles the Bold (or 'the Brash') in 1477 led to the Duchy being absorbed into the French crown by King Louis XI, while the Low Countries fell under Habsburg control, passing with the abdication of Charles I of Spain to the Spanish Empire of Philip II of Spain. Under Philips' intolerant hand, the Netherlands broke out in the first of the religious wars of the Protestant Reformation.

Heroin (diacetylmorphine (INN)), also known as diamorphine (BAN, or, especially in older literature, as morphine diacetate), is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine (di-acetyl-morphine) and a morphine prodrug.[3] The white crystalline form is commonly the hydrochloride salt diacetylmorphine hydrochloride, though, when supplied illegally, it is often adulterated, thus dulling the sheen and consistency from that to a matte white powder, which diacetylmorphine freebase typically is.[4] 90% of illicit diamorphine (heroin) is thought to be produced in Afghanistan.[5]

As with other opioids, diacetylmorphine is used as both an analgesic and a recreational drug. Frequent and regular administration is associated with tolerance and physical dependence, which may develop into addiction. Internationally, diacetylmorphine is controlled under Schedules I and IV of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.[6] It is illegal to manufacture, possess, or sell diacetylmorphine without a license in almost every country.

Under the chemical name diamorphine, diacetylmorphine is a legally prescribed controlled drug in the United Kingdom, and is supplied in tablet or injectable form for the same indications as morphine is. It is available for prescription to long-term users in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark alongside psycho-social care,[7][8] and a similar programme is being campaigned for by liberal political parties in Norway. Some countries allow the government to sell or donate high-quality seizures of drugs and precursors which are otherwise legal for medicinal use to pharmaceutical manufacturers for use in preparing licit supplies of medical drugs and research chemicals; this was the case in Croatia before 2007.[

Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack.[1][2][3]

In purer forms, crack rocks appear as off-white nuggets with jagged edges,[2] with a slightly higher density than candle wax. Purer forms of crack resemble a hard brittle plastic, in crystalline form[2] (snaps when broken). A crack rock acts as a local anesthetic (see: Cocaine), numbing the tongue or mouth only where directly placed. When smoked, crack can leave the tongue numb where the smoke enters the mouth.[citation needed] Purer forms of crack will sink in water or melt at the edges when near a flame (crack vaporizes at 90 °C, 194 °F).[1]

Crack cocaine as sold on the streets may be adulterated or "buffed" to increase bulk. According to Cpl. Kent Dahl, with Red Deer RCMP Federal Drugs, Canada, white substances mimicking the appearance of cocaine are added to increase bulk. Use of toxic adulterants such as levamisole[4] has been documented.[3]

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About the Editor

Leigh Stringer, LEED AP, aka "Greenette," has spent her career focused on green design and workplace behavior. She works for HOK, a global architectural firm in Washington, D.C. and has been interviewed for her work by CNN, USA Today and ABC’s Good Morning America.